1 1 


lleligum  of 
jFutute 


Charles  <lJ.<I5li0t 


o 

CNJ 


03 


IN  MEMORIAM 
Charles  .Josselyij 


€&e  EeUgion  of  tjje  jfutute 


Cl)e  Religion  of 
tlje  Jfuture 

A  lecture  delivered  at  the  close  of  the 
eleventh  session  of  the  Harvard  Summer 
School  of  Theology,  July  22,  1909 

By 

CHARLES    W.    ELIOT 


FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK       :       :       PUBLISHERS 


&R 


*• 


Contents 

"  THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH  "     ...  1 

"THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD" '16 

RELIGIOUS  COMPENSATIONS  ...      .      .  24 

THE  FIGHT  AGAINST  EVIL  .....  29 

THE  DIVINE  JUSTICE 33 

RELIGIOUS  CONSOLATION 36" 

"  GOOD-WILL  TO  MEN  "       .      .     ,.,     .      .  39 

THE  UPLIFTING  LOVE  OF  TRUTH    ...  42 

CHRISTIAN  BROTHERHOOD 49 


615973 


C&e  meligion  of  t&e  jFuture 


The  Religion  of  the 
Future 


As  students  in  this  Summer  School  of 
Theology  you  have  attended  a  series  of 
lectures  on  fluctuations  in  religious  in- 
terest, on  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
religious  declines  followed  soon  by  re- 
coveries or  regenerations  both  within 
and  without  the  churches,  on  the  fre- 
quent attempts  to  bring  the  prevalent 
religious  doctrines  into  harmony  with 
new  tendencies  in  the  intellectual 
world,  on  the  constant  struggle  be- 
tween conservatism  and  liberalism  in 
existing  churches  and  between  idealism 
and  materialism  in  society  at  large,  on 
the  effects  of  popular  education  and 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

the  modern  spirit  of  inquiry  on  reli- 
gious doctrines  and  organizations,  on 
the  changed  views  of  thinking  people 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  world  and 
of  man,  on  the  increase  of  knowledge 
as  affecting  religion,  and  on  the  new 
ideas  of  God.  You  have  also  listened 
to  lectures  on  psychotherapy,  a  new 
development  of  an  ancient  tendency  to 
mix  religion  with  medicine,  and  on  the 
theory  of  evolution,  a  modern  scientific 
doctrine  which  within  fifty  years  has 
profoundly  modified  the  religious  con- 
ceptions and  expectations  of  many 
thinking  people.  You  have  heard, 
too,  how  the  new  ideas  of  democracy 
;and  social  progress  have  modified  and 
ought  to  modify,  not  only  the  actual 
work  done  by  the  churches,  but  the 
whole  conception  of  the  function  of 
churches.  Again,  you  have  heard  how 
many  and  how  profound  are  the  reli- 
gious implications  in  contemporary 


"THE    OLD    ORDER    CHANGETH " 

philosophy.  Your  attention  has  been 
called  to  the  most  recent  views  con- 
cerning the  conservation  of  energy  in 
the  universe,  to  the  wonderful  phe- 
nomena of  radio-activity,  and  to  the 
most  recent  definitions  of  atom,  mole- 
cule, ion,  and  electron — human  imagin- 
ings which  have  much  to  do  with  the 
modern  conceptions  of  matter  and 
spirit.  The  influence  on  popular  reli- 
gion of  modern  scholarship  applied  to 
the  New  Testament  has  also  engaged 
your  attention;  and,  finally,  you  have 
heard  an  exposition  of  religious  condi- 
tions and  practices  in  the  United 
States  which  assumed  an  intimate  con- 
nection between  the  advance  of  civili- 
zation and  the  contemporaneous  as- 
pects of  religions,  and  illustrated  from 
history  the  service  of  religion — and 
particularly  of  Christianity — to  the 
progress  of  civilization  through  its 
contributions  to  individual  freedom,  in- 

3 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

tellectual  culture,  and  social  coopera- 
tion. 

The  general  impression  you  have  re- 
ceived from  this  comprehensive  survey 
must  surely  be  that  religion  is  not  a 
fixed,  but  a  fluent  thing.  It  is,  there- 
fore, wholly  natural  and  to  be  expected 
that  the  conceptions  of  religion  preva- 
lent among  educated  people  should 
change  from  century  to  century. 
Modern  studies  in  comparative  religion 
and  in  the  history  of  religions  demon- 
strate that  such  has  been  the  case  in 
times  past.  Now  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury immeasurably  surpassed  all  pre- 
ceding centuries  in  the  increase  of 
knowledge,  and  in  the  spread  of  the 
spirit  of  scientific  inquiry  and  of  the 
passion  for  truth-seeking.  Hence  the 
changes  in  religious  beliefs  and  prac- 
tices, and  in  the  relation  of  churches  to 
human  society  as  a  whole,  were  much 
deeper  and  more  extensive  in  that  cen- 

4 


'THE    OLD    ORDER    CHANGETH " 

tury  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of 
the  world;  and  the  approach  made  to 
the  embodiment  in  the  actual  practices 
of  mankind  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
greatest  religious  teachers  was  more 
significant  and  more  rapid  than  ever 
before.  The  religion  of  a  multitude 
of  humane  persons  in  the  twentieth 
century  may,  therefore,  be  called  with- 
out inexcusable  exaggeration  a  "  new 
religion,"-  —not  that  a  single  one  of  its 
doctrines  and  practices  is  really  new  in 
essence,  but  only  that  the  wider  accept- 
ance and  better  actual  application 
of  truths  familiar  in  the  past  at 
many  times  and  places,  but  never  taken 
to  heart  by  the  multitude  or  put  in 
force  on  a  large  scale,  are  new.  I  shall 
attempt  to  state  without  reserve  and  in 
simplest  terms  free  from  technicalities, 
first,  what  the  religion  of  the  future 
seems  likely  not  to  be,  and  secondly, 
what  it  may  reasonably  be  expected  to 

5 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

be.  My  point  of  view  is  that  of  an 
American  layman,  whose  observing  and 
thinking  life  has  covered  the  extraordi- 
nary period  since  the  Voyage  of  the 
Beagle  was  published,  anaesthesia  and 
the  telegraph  came  into  use,  Herbert 
Spencer  issued  his  first  series  of  papers 
on  evolution,  Kuenen,  Robertson 
Smith,  and  Wellhausen  developed  and 
vindicated  Biblical  criticism,  J.  S. 
Mill's  Principles  of  Political  Economy 
appeared,  and  the  United  States  by 
going  to  war  with  Mexico  set  in  opera- 
tion the  forces  which  abolished  slavery 
on  the  American  continent — the  period 
within  which  mechanical  power  came 
to  be  widely  distributed  through  the 
explosive  engine  and  the  applications 
of  electricity,  and  all  the  great  funda- 
mental industries  of  civilized  mankind 
were  reconstructed. 

(1)   The  religion  of  the  future,  will 
not  be  based  on  authority,  either  spirit- 

6 


"THE    OLD    ORDER    CHANGETH " 

ual  or  temporal.  The  decline  of  the 
reliance  upon  absolute  authority  is  one 
of  the  most  significant  phenomena  of 
the  modern  world.  This  decline  is  to 
be  seen  everywhere, — in  government, 
in  education,  in  the  church,  in  business, 
and  in  the  family.  The  present  gener- 
ation is  willing,  and  indeed  often 
eager,  to  be  led;  but  it  is  averse  to 
being  driven,  and  it  wants  to  under- 
stand the  grounds  and  sanctions  of  au- 
thoritative decisions.  As  a  rule,  the 
Christian  churches,  Roman,  Greek, 
and  Protestant,  have  heretofore  relied 
mainly  upon  the  principle  of  authority, 
the  Reformation  having  substituted 
for  an  authoritative  church  an  authori- 
tative book;  but  it  is  evident  that  the 
authority,  both  of  the  most  authorita- 
tive churches  and  of  the  Bible  as  a 
verbally  inspired  guide,  is  already 
greatly  impaired,  and  that  the  tend- 
ency towards  liberty  is  progressive, 

7 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

and    among    educated    men    irresist- 
ible. 

(2)  It  is   hardly  necessary  to   say 
that  in  the  religion  of  the  future  there 
will  be  no  personifications  of  the  primi- 
tive forces  of  nature,  such  as  light,  fire, 
frost,  wind,  storm,  and  earthquake,  al- 
though primitive  religions  and  the  ac- 
tual religions  of  barbarous  or  semi-civ- 
ilized peoples  abound  in  such  personi- 
fications.    The  mountains,  groves,  vol- 
canoes, and  oceans  will  no  longer  be  in- 
habited by  either  kindly  or  malevolent 
deities;  although  man  will  still  look  to 
the  hills  for  rest,  still  find  in  the  ocean 
a  symbol  of  infinity,  and  refreshment 
and  delight  in   the    forests    and    the 
streams.     The  love  of  nature  mounts 
and    spreads,    while    faith  in  fairies, 
imps,  nymphs,  demons,  and  angels  de- 
clines and  fades  away. 

(3)  There  will  be  in  the  religion  of 
the  future  no  worship,  express  or  im- 

8 


"THE    OLD    ORDER    CHANGETH* 

plied,  of  dead  ancestors,  teachers,  or 
rulers;  no  more  tribal,  racial,  or  tute- 
lary gods;  no  identification  of  any  hu- 
man being,  however  majestic  in  char- 
acter, with  the  Eternal  Deity.  In 
these  respects  the  religion  of  the  fu- 
ture will  not  be  essentially  new,  for 
nineteen  centuries  ago  Jesus  said, 
"  Neither  in  this  mountain,  nor  in  Je- 
rusalem, shall  ye  worship  the  Father. 
.  .  .  God  is  a  Spirit;  and  they  that 
worship  Him  must  worship  in  spirit 
and  truth."  It  should  be  recognized, 
however,  first,  that  Christianity  was 
soon  deeply  affected  by  the  surround- 
ing paganism,  and  that  some  of  these 
pagan  intrusions  have  survived  to  this 
day;  and  secondly,  that  the_  Hebrew 
religion,  the  influence  of  which  on  the 
Christian  has  been,  and  is,  very  potent, 
was  in  the  highest  degree  a  racial  reli- 
gion, and  its  Holy  of  Holies  was  local. 
In  war-times,  that  is,  in  times  when  the 

9 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

brutal  or  savage  instincts  remaining  in 
humanity  become  temporarily  domi- 
nant, and  good-will  is  limited  to  peo- 
ple of  the  same  nation,  the  survival  of 
a  tribal  or  national  quality  in  institu- 
tional Christianity  comes  out  very 
plainly.  ;The  aid  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
is  still  invoked  by  both  parties  to  inter- 
national warfare,  and  each  side  praises 
and  thanks  Him  for  its  successes.  In- 
deed, the  same  spirit  has  often  been  ex- 
hibited in  civil  wars  caused  by  religious 
differences. 

"  Now  glory  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  from  whom  all 

glories  are! 

And  glory  to  our  sovereign  liege,  King  Henry  of 
Navarre!" 

It  is  not  many  years  since  an  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  caused  thanks 
to  be  given  in  all  Anglican  churches 
that  the  Lord  of  Hosts  had  been  in  the 
English  camp  over  against  the  Egyp- 

10 


"THE  OLD  ORDER  CHANGETH " 

tians.  Heretofore  the  great  religions 
of  the  world  have  held  out  hopes  of  di- 
rect interventions  of  the  deity,  or  some 
special  deity,  in  favor  of  his  faithful 
worshippers.  It  was  the  greatest  of 
Jewish  prophets  who  told  King  Heze- 
kiahjthat^the  King  of  Assyria,  who  had 
approached  Jerusalem  with  a  great 
army,  should  not  come  into  the  city  nor 
shoot  an  arrow  there,  and  reported  the 
Lord  as  saying,  "  I  will  defend  this 
city  to  save  it,  for  my  own  sake,  and 
for  my  servant  David's  sake."  "  And 
it  came  to  pass  that  night,  that  the  an- 
gel of  the  Lord  went  forth,  and  smote 
in  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  an  hun- 
dred fourscore  and  five  thousand:  and 
when  men  arose  early  in  the  morning, 
behold,  they  were  all  dead  corpses." 
The  new  religion  cannot  promise  that 
sort  of  aid  to  either  nations  or  individ- 
uals in  peril. 

(4)  In  the  religious  life  of  the  fu- 
ll 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    FUTURE 

ture  the  primary  object  will  not  be  the 
personal  welfare  or  safety  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  this  world  or  any  other. 
That  safety,  that  welfare  or  salvation, 
may  be  incidentally  secured,  but  it  will 
not  be  the  prime  object  in  view.  The 
religious  person  will  not  think  of  his 
own  welfare  or  security,  but  of  service 
to  others,  and  of  contributions  to  the 
common  good.  The  new  religion  will 
not  teach  that  character  is  likely  to  be 
suddenly  changed,  either  in  this  world 
or  in  any  other, — although  in  any 
world  a  sudden  opportunity  for  im- 
provement may  present  itself,  and  the 
date  of  that  opportunity  may  be  a  pre- 
cious remembrance.  The  new  religion 
will  not  rely  on  either  a  sudden  conver- 
sion in  this  world  or  a  sudden  paradise 
in  the  next,  from  out  a  sensual,  selfish, 
or  dishonest  life.  It  will  teach  that 
repentance  wipes  out  nothing  in  the 
past,  and  is  only  the  first  step  towards 

12 


'THE    OLD    ORDER    CHANGETH " 

reformation,  and  a  sign  of  a  better  fu- 
ture. 

(5)  The  religion  of  the  future  will 
not  be  propitiatory,  sacrificial,  or  expi- 
atory. In  primitive  society  fear  of  the 
supernal  powers,  as  represented  in  the 
awful  forces  of  nature,  was  the  root  of 
religion.  These  dreadful  powers  must 
be  propitiated  or  placated,  and  they 
must  be  propitiated  by  sacrifices  in  the 
most  literal  sense;  and  the  supposed 
offences  of  man  must  be  expiated  by 
sufferings,  which  were  apt  to  be  vica- 
rious. Even  the  Hebrews  offered  hu- 
man sacrifices  for  generations;  and  al- 
ways a  great  part  of  their  religious 
rites  consisted  in  sacrifices  of  animals. 
The  Christian  church  made  a  great 
step  forward  when  it  substituted  the 
burning  of  incense  for  the  burning  of 
bullocks  and  doves;  but  to  this  day 
there  survives,  not  only  in  the  doctrines, 
but  in  the  practices  of  the  Christian 

13 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

church  the  principle  of  expiatory  sacri- 
fice. It  will  be  an  immense  advance  if 
twentieth-century  Christianity  can  be 
purified  from  all  these  survivals  of  bar- 
barous, or  semi-barbarous,  religious 
conceptions;  because  they  imply  such 
an  unworthy  idea  of  God. 

(6)  The  religion  of  the  future  will 
not  perpetuate  the  Hebrew  anthropo- 
morphic representations  of  God,  con- 
ceptions which  were  carried  in  large 
measure  into  institutional  Christianity. 
It  will  not  think  of  God  as  an  enlarged 
and  glorified  man,  who  walks  "  in  the 
garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day,"  or  as  a 
judge  deciding  between  human  liti- 
gants, or  as  a  king,  Pharaoh,  or  em- 
peror, ruling  arbitrarily  his  subjects, 
or  as  the  patriarch  who,  in  the  early 
history  of  the  race,  ruled  his  family  ab- 
solutely. These  human  functions  will 
cease  to  represent  adequately  the  attri- 
butes of  God.  The  nineteenth  cen- 

14 


'THE    OLD    ORDER    CHANGETH " 

tury  has  made  all  these  conceptions  of 
deity  look  archaic  and  crude. 

(7)  The  religion  of  the  future  will 
not  be  gloomy,  ascetic,  or  maledictory. 
It  will  not  deal  chiefly  with  sorrow  and 
death,  but  with  joy  and  life.  It  will 
not  care  so  much  to  account  for  the  evil 
and  the  ugly  in  the  world  as  to  inter- 
pret the  good  and  the  beautiful.  It 
will  believe  in  no  malignant  powers — 
neither  in  Satan  nor  in  witches,  neither 
in  the  evil  eye  nor  in  the  malign  sug- 
gestion. When  its  disciple  encounters 
a  wrong  or  evil  in  the  world,  his  im- 
pulse will  be  to  search  out  its  origin, 
source,  or  cause,  that  he  may  attack  it 
at  its  starting-point.  He  may  not 
speculate  on  the  origin  of  evil  in  gen- 
eral, but  will  surely  try  to  discover  the 
best  way  to  eradicate  the  particular 
evil  or  wrong  he  has  'recognized. 


"  Cfce  ffiUng&om  of  <£>oo ' 

HAVING  thus  considered  what  the  re- 
ligion of  the  future  will  not  be,  let  us 
now  consider  what  its  positive  elements 
will  be. 

The  new  thought  of  God  will  be  its 
most  characteristic  element.  This 
ideal  will  comprehend  the  Jewish  Jeho- 
vah, the  Christian  Universal  Father, 
,  the  modern  physicist's  omnipresent 
and  exhaustless  Energy,  and  the  bio- 
logical conception  of  a  Vital  Force. 
The  Infinite  Spirit  pervades  the  uni- 
verse, just  as  the  spirit  of  a  man  per- 
vades his  body,  and  acts,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  in  every  atom  of  it.  The 
twentieth  century  will  accept  literally 
and  implicitly  St.  Paul's  statement, 
"  In  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 

16 


'THE    KINGDOM   OF    GOD" 

our  being;"  and  God  is  that  vital  at- 
mosphere, or  incessant  inspiration. 
The  new  religion  is  therefore  thor- 
oughly monotheistic,  its  God  being  the 
one  infinite  force;  but  thfs~one  God  is 
not  withdrawn  or  removed,  but  in- 
dwelling, and  especially  dwelling  in 
every  living  creature.  God  is  so  abso- 
lutely immanent  in  all  things,  animate 
and  inanimate,  that  no  mediation  is 
needed  between  him  and  the  least  par- 
ticle qf  his  creation.  In  his  moral  at- 
tributes, he  is  for  every  man  the  multi- 
plication to  infinity  of  all  the  noblest, 
tenderest,  and  most  potent  qualities 
which  that  man  has  ever  seen  or  imag- 
ined in  a  human  being.  In  this  sense 
every  man  makes  his  own  picture  of  j 
God.  Every  age,  barbarous  or  civi- 
lized, happy  or  unhappy,  improving  or 
degenerating,  frames  its  own  concep- 
tion of  God  within  the  limits  of  its  own 
experiences  and  imaginings.  In  this 

17 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

sense,  too,  a  humane  religion  has  to 
wait  for  a  humane  generation.  The 
central  thought  of  the  new  religion  will 
therefore  be  a  humane  and  worthy  idea 
of  God,  thoroughly  consistent  with  the 
nineteenth-century  revelations  con- 
cerning man  and  nature,  and  with  all 
the  tenderest  and  loveliest  teachings 
which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the 
past. 

The  scientific  doctrine  of  one  omni- 
present, eternal  Energy,  informing 
and  inspiring  the  whole  creation  at 
every  instant  of  time  and  throughout 
the  infinite  spaces,  is  fundamentally 
and  completely  inconsistent  with  the 
dualistic  conception  which  sets  spirit 
over  against  matter,  good  over  against 
evil,  man's  wickedness  against  God's 
righteousness,  and  Satan  against 
Christ.  The  doctrine  of  God's  imma- 
nence is  also  inconsistent  with  the  con- 
ception that  he  once  set  the  universe 

18 


'THE    KINGDOM   OF   GOD" 

a-going,  and  then  withdrew,  leaving 
the  universe  to  be  operated  under  phys- 
ical laws,  which  were  his  vicegerents  or 
substitutes.  If  God  is  thoroughly  im- 
manent in  the  entire  creation,  there  can 
be  no  "  secondary  causes,"  in  either  the 
material  or  the  spiritual  universe. 
The  new  religion  rejects  absolutely  the 
conception  that  man  is  an  alien  in  the 
world,  or  that  God  is  alienated  from 
the  world.  It  rejects  also  the  entire 
conception  of  man  as  a  fallen  being, 
hopelessly  wicked,  and  tending  down- 
ward by  nature;  and  it  makes  this  em- 
phatic rejection  of  long- accepted  be- 
liefs because  it  finds  them  all  inconsist- 
ent with  a  humane,  civilized,  or  worthy 
idea  of  God.  . 

If,  now,  man  discovers  God  through 
self -consciousness,  or,  in  other  words, 
if  it  is  the  human  soul  through  which 
God  is  revealed,  the  race  has  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  God  through  knowl- 

19 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

edge  of  itself;  and  the  best  knowledge 
of  God  comes  through  knowledge  of 
the  best  of  the  race.  Men  have  always 
attributed  to  man  a  spirit  distinct  from 
his  body,  though  immanent  in  it.  No 
one  of  us  is  willing  to  identify  himself 
with  his  body;  but  on  the  contrary 
every  one  now  believes,  and  all  men 
have  believed,  that  there  is  in  a  man  an 
animating,  ruling,  characteristic  es- 
sence, or  spirit,  which  is  himself.  This 
spirit,  dull  or  bright,  petty  or  grand, 
pure  or  foul,  looks  out  of  the  eyes, 
sounds  in  the  voice,  and  appears  in  the 
bearing  and  manners  of  each  individ- 
ual. It  is  something  just  as  real  as  the 
body,  and  more  characteristic.  To 
every  influential  person  it  gives  far  the 
greater  part  of  his  power.  It  is  what 
we  call  the  personality.  This  spirit, 
or  soul,  is  the  most  effective  part  of 
every  human  being,  and  is  recognized 
as  such,  and  always  has  been.  It  can 

20 


"THE    KINGDOM   OF   GOD " 

use  a  fine  body  more  effectively  than  it 
can  a  poor  body,  but  it  can  do  wonders 
through  an  inadequate  body.  In  the 
crisis  of  a  losing  battle,  it  is  a  human 
soul  that  rallies  the  flying  troops.  It 
looks  out  of  flashing  eyes,  and  speaks 
in  ringing  tones,  but  its  appeal  is  to 
other  souls,  and  not  to  other  bodies. 
In  the  midst  of  terrible  natural  catas- 
trophes,— earthquakes,  storms,  confla- 
grations, volcanic  eruptions, — when 
men's  best  works  are  being  destroyed 
and  thousands  of  lives  are  ceasing  sud- 
denly and  horribly,  it  is  not  a  few  espe- 
cially good  human  bodies  which  steady 
the  survivors,  maintain  order,  and  or- 
ganize the  forces  of  rescue  and  relief. 
It  is  a  few  superior  souls.  The  lead- 
ing men  and  women  in  any  society, 
savage  or  civilized,  are  the  strongest 
personalities, — the  personality  being 
primarily  spiritual,  and  only  seconda- 
rily bodily.  Recognizing  to  the  full 

21 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

these  simple  and  obvious  facts,  the  fu- 
ture religion  will  pay  homage  to  all 
righteous  and  loving  persons  who  in 
the  past  have  exemplified,  and  made 
intelligible  to  their  contemporaries,  in- 
trinsic goodness  and  effluent  good-will. 
It  will  be  an  all-saints  religion.  It 
will  treasure  up  all  tales  of  human  ex- 
cellence and  virtue.  It  will  reverence 
the  discoverers,  teachers,  martyrs,  and 
apostles  of  liberty,  purity,  and  right- 
eousness. It  will  respect  and  honor 
all  strong  and  lovely  human  beings, — 
seeing  in  them  in  finite  measure  quali- 
ties similar  to  those  which  they  adore 
in  God.  Recognizing  in  every  great 
and  lovely  human  person  an  individual 
will-power  which  is  the  essence  of  the 
personality,  it  will  naturally  and  inev- 
itably attribute  to  God  a  similar  indi- 
vidual will-power,  the  essence  of  his  in- 
finite personality.  In  this  simple  and 
natural  faith  there  will  be  no  place  for 

22 


"THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD" 

metaphysical  complexities  or  magical 
rites;"mucE~less  for  obscure  dogmas, 
the  result  of  compromises  in  turbulent 
conventions.  It  is  anthropomorphic; 
but  what  else  can  a  human  view  of 
God's  personality  be?  The  finite  can 
study  and  describe  the  infinite  only 
through  analogy,  parallelism,  and 
simile;  but  that  is  a  good  way.  The 
new  religion  will  animate  and  guide 
ordinary  men  and  women  who  are  put- 
ting into  practice  religious  conceptions 
which  result  directly  from  their  own 
observation  and  precious  experience  of 
tenderness,  sympathy,  trust,  and  sol- 
emn joy.  It  will  be  most  welcome  to 
the  men  and  women  who  cherish  and 
exhibit  incessant,  all-comprehending 
good-will.  These  are  the  "  good " 
people.  LThese  are  the  only  genuinely 
civilized  persons. 


Compensation? 

To  the  wretched,  sick,  and  downtrod- 
den of  the  earth,  religion  has  in  the 
past  held  out  hopes  of  future  compen- 
sation. When  precious  ties  of  affec- 
tion have  been  broken,  religion  has  held 
out  prospects  of  immediate  and  eternal 
blessings  for  the  departed;  and  has 
promised  happy  reunions  in  another 
and  a  better  world.  To  a  human  soul, 
lodged  in  an  imperfect,  feeble,  or  suf- 
fering body,  some  of  the  older  religions 
have  held  out  the  expectation  of  deliv- 
erance by  death,  and  of  entrance  upon 
a  rich,  competent,  and  happy  life, — in 
short,  for  present  human  ills,  however 
crushing,  the  widely  accepted  religions 
have  offered  either  a  second  life,  pre- 
sumably immortal,  under  the  happiest 


RELIGIOUS    COMPENSATIONS 

conditions,  or  at  least  peace,  rest,  and 
a  happy  oblivion.  Can  the  future  re- 
ligion promise  that  sort  of  compensa- 
tion for  the  ills  of  this  world,  any  more 
than  it  can  promise  miraculous  aid 
against  threatened  disaster?  A  can- 
did reply  to  this  inquiry  involves  the 
statement  that  in  the  future  religion 
there  will  be  nothing  "supernatural." 
This  does  not  mean  that  life  will  be 
stripped  of  mystery  or  wonder,  or  that 
the  range  of  natural  law  has  been 
finally  determined;  but  that  religion, 
like  all  else,  must  conform  to  natural 
law  so  far  as  the  range  of  law  has  been 
determined.  In  this  sense  the  religion 
of  the  future  will  be  a  natural  religion. 
In  all  its  theory  and  all  its  practice  it 
will  be  completely  natural.  It  will 
place  no  reliance  on  any  sort  of  magic, 
or  miracle,  or  other  violation  of,  or  ex- 
ception to,  the  laws  of  nature.  It  will 
perform  no  magical  rites,  use  no  occult 

25 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

processes,  count  on  no  abnormal  inter- 
ventions of  supernal  powers,  and  admit 
no  possession  of  supernatural  gifts, 
whether  transmitted  or  conferred,  by 
any  tribe,  class,  or  family  of  men.  Its 
sacraments  will  be,  not  invasions  of  law 
by  miracle,  but  the  visible  signs  of  a 
natural  spiritual  grace,  or  of  a  natural 
hallowed  custom.  It  may  preserve 
historical  rites  and  ceremonies,  which, 
in  times  past,  have  represented  the  ex- 
pectation of  magical  or  miraculous  ef- 
fects; but  it  will  be  content  with  nat- 
ural interpretations  of  such  rites  and 
ceremonies.  Its  priests  will  be  men 
especially  interested  in  religious 
thought,  possessing  unusual  gifts  of 
speech  on  devotional  subjects,  and 
trained  in  the  best  methods  of  improv- 
ing the  social  and  industrial  conditions 
of  human  life.  There  will  always  be 
need  of  such  public  teachers  and  spirit- 
ual leaders,  heralds,  and  prophets.  It 

26 


RELIGIOUS    COMPENSATIONS 

sliould  be  observed,  however,  that 
many  happenings  and  processes  which 
were  formerly  regarded  as  supernat- 
ural have,  with  the  increase  of  knowl- 
edge, come  to  be  regarded  as  com- 
pletely natural.  The  line  between  the 
supposed  natural  and  the  supposed 
supernatural  is,  therefore,  not  fixed 
but  changeable. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  that  the  com- 
pletely natural  quality  of  the  future 
religion  excludes  from  it  many  of 
the  religious  compensations  and  conso- 
lations of  the  past.  Twentieth-cen- 
tury soldiers,  going  into  battle,  will  not 
be  able  to  say  to  each  other,  as  Moslem 
soldiers  did  in  the  tenth  century,  "  If 
we  are  killed  to-day,  we  shall  meet 
again  to-night  in  Paradise."  *  Even 
now,  the  mother  who  loses  her  babe,  or 
the  husband  his  wife,  by  a  preventable 
disease,  is  seldom  able  to  say  simply, 
"  It  is  the  will  of  God!  The  babe— or 

27 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    FUTURE 

the   woman — is   better  off   in   heaven 
than  on  earth.     I  resign  this  dear  ob- 
ject of  love  and  devotion,  who  has  gone 
to   a   happier   world/'     The   ordinary 
consolations  of  institutional  Christian- 
ity no  longer  satisfy  intelligent  people 
whose  lives  are  broken  by  the  sickness 
or  premature  death  of  those  they  love. 
The  new  religion  will  not  attempt  to 
reconcile  men  and  women  to  present 
ills  by  promises  of  future  blessedness, 
either    for   themselves    or    for    others. 
Such  promises  have  done  infinite  mis- 
chief in  the  world,  by  inducing  men  to 
be  patient  under  sufferings  or  depri- 
vations against  which  they  should  have 
incessantly  struggled.    The  advent  of  a 
just  freedom  for  the  mass  of  mankind 
has  been  delayed  for  centuries  by  just 
this  effect  of  compensatory  promises 
issued  by  churches. 


Cfje  Jftgfjt  against 

THE  religion  of  the  future  will  ap- 
proach the  whole  subject  of  evil  from 
another  side,  that  of  resistance  and  pre- 
vention. The  Breton  sailor,  who  had 
had  his  arm  poisoned  by  a  dirty  fish- 
hook which  had  entered  his  finger,  made 
a  votive  offering  at  the  shrine  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  prayed  for  a  cure. 
The  workman  to-day,  who  gets  cut  or 
bruised  by  a  rough  or  dirty  instrument, 
goes  to  a  surgeon,  who  applies  an  anti- 
septic dressing  to  the  wound,  and  pre- 
vents the  poisoning.  That  surgeon  is 
one  of  the  ministers  of  the  new  religion. 
When  dwellers  in  a  slum  suffer  the  fa- 
miliar evils  caused  by  overcrowding, 
impure  food,  and  cheerless  labor,  the 
modern  true  believers  contend  against 
the  sources  of  such  misery  by  providing 

29 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

public  baths,  playgrounds,  wider  and 
cleaner  streets,  better  dwellings,  and 
more  effective  schools, — that  is,  they  at- 
tack the  sources  of  physical  and  moral 
evil.  The  new  religion  cannot  supply 
the  old  sort  of  consolation;  but  it  can 
diminish  the  need  of  consolation,  or  re- 
duce the  number  of  occasions  for  con- 
solation. 

A  further  change  in  religious  think- 
ing has  already  occurred  on  the  subject 
of  human  pain.  Pain  was  generally 
regarded  as  a  punishment  for  sin,  or  as 
a  means  of  moral  training,  or  as  an  ex- 
piation, vicarious  or  direct.  Twentieth- 
century  religion,  gradually  perfected  in 
this  respect  during  the  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  regards  human  pain 
as  an  evil  to  be  relieved  and  prevented 
by  the  promptest  means  possible,  and 
by  any  sort  of  available  means,  physical, 
mental,  or  moral;  and,  thanks  to  the 
progress  of  biological  and  chemical  sci- 

30 


THE    FIGHT   AGAINST    EVIL 

ence,  there  is  comparatively  little  phys- 
ical pain  nowadays  which  cannot  be 
prevented  or  relieved.  The  invention 
of  anaesthetics  has  brought  into  con- 
tempt the  expiatory,  or  penal,  view  of 
human  pain  in  this  world.  The 
younger  generations  listen  with  incred- 
ulous smiles  to  the  objection  made  only 
a  little  more  than  sixty  years  ago  by 
some  divines  of  the  Scottish  Presbyte- 
rian church  to  the  employment  of  chlo- 
roform in  childbirth,  namely,  that  the 
physicians  were  interfering  with  the 
execution  of  a  curse  pronounced  by  the 
Almighty.  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell,  a  physi- 
cian who  has  seen  much  of  mental  pain 
as  well  as  of  bodily,  in  his  poem  read  at 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  first  pub- 
lic demonstration  of  surgical  anaesthe- 
sia, said  of  pain: 

"What  purpose  hath  it?    Nay,  thy  quest  is  vain: 
Earth  hath  no  answer:    If  the  baffled  brain 
Cries,  'Tis  to  warn,  to  punish,  Ah,  refrain ! 
31 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

When  writhes  the  child,  beneath  the  surgeon's  hand, 
What  soul  shall  hope  that  pain  to  understand? 
Lo!  Science  falters  o'er  the  hopeless  task, 
And  Love  and  Faith  in  vain  an  answer  ask."    , 


Cfje  Ditrine  3ju0tfce 

A  SIMILAR  change  is  occurring  in  re- 
gard to  the  conception  of  divine  justice. 
The  evils  in  this  world  have  been  re- 
garded as  penalties  inflicted  by  a  just 
God  on  human  beings  who  had  violated 
his  laws;  and  the  justice  of  God  played 
a  great  part  in  his  imagined  dealings 
with  the  human  race.  A  young  gradu- 
ate of  Andover  Theological  Seminary 
once  told  me  that  when  he  had  preached 
two  or  three  times  one  summer  in  a 
small  Congregational  church  on  Cape 
Cod,  one  of  the  deacons  of  the  church 
said  to  him  at  the  close  of  the  service, 
"  What  sort  of  sentimental  mush  is  this 
that  they  are  teaching  you  at  Andover? 
You  talk  every  Sunday  about  the  love 
of  God;  we  want  to  hear  about  his  jus-  , 
tice."  The  future  religion  will  not  un- 
dertake to  describe,  or  even  imagine, 

$3 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    FUTURE 

the  justice  of  God.  We  are  to-day  so 
profoundly  dissatisfied  with  human  jus- 
tice, although  it  is  the  result  of  centu- 
ries of  experience  of  social  good  and  ill 
in  this  world,  that  we  may  well  distrust 
human  capacity  to  conceive  of  the  jus- 
tice of  a  morally  perfect,  infinite  being. 
The  civilized  nations  now  recognize  the 
fact  that  legal  punishments  usually  fail 
of  their  objects,  or  cause  wrongs  and 
evils  greater  than  those  for  which  the 
punishments  were  inflicted;  so  that  pe- 
nology, or  the  science  of  penalties,  has 
still  to  be  created.  It  is  only  very 
lately  that  the  most  civilized  communi- 
ties began  to  learn  how  to  deal  with 
criminal  tendencies  in  the  young.  In 
the  eyes  of  God  human  beings  must  all 
seem  very  young.  Since  our  ideas  of 
God's  modes  of  thinking  and  acting  are 
necessarily  based  on  the  best  human  at- 
tainments in  similar  directions,  the  new 
religion  cannot  pretend  to  understand 

M 


THE    DIVINE    JUSTICE 

God's  justice,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no 
human  experience  of  public  justice  fit 
to  serve  as  the  foundation  for  a  true 
conception  of  God's.  The  new  religion 
will  magnify  and  laud  God's  love  and 
compassion,  and  will  not  venture  to 
state  what  the  justice  of  God  may,  or 
may  not,  require  of  himself,  or  of  any 
of  his  finite  creatures.  This  will  be  one 
of  the  great  differences  between  the  fu- 
ture religion  and  the  past.  Institu- 
tional Christianity  as  a  rule  condemned 
the  mass  of  mankind  to  eternal  tor- 
ment ;  partly  because  the  leaders  of  the 
churches  thought  they  understood  com- 
pletely the  justice  of  God,  and  partly 
because  the  exclusive  possession  of 
means  of  deliverance  gave  the  churches 
some  restraining  influence  over  even  the 
boldest  sinners,  and  much  over  the 
timid.  The  new  religion  will  make  no 
such  pretensions,  and  will  teach  no  such 
horrible  and  perverse  doctrines. 

35 


Religious  Consolation 

Do  you  ask  what  consolation  for  hu- 
man ills  the  new  religion  will  offer?  I 
answer,  the  consolation  which  often 
comes  to  the  sufferer  from  being  more 
serviceable  to  others  than  he  was  before 
the  loss  or  the  suffering  for  which  con- 
solation is  needed;  the  consolation  of 
being  one's  self  wiser  and  tenderer  than 
before,  and  therefore  more  able  to  be 
serviceable  to  human  kind  in  the  best 
ways ;  the  consolation  through  the  mem- 
ory, which  preserves  the  sweet  fra- 
grance of  characters  and  lives  no  longer 
in  presence,  recalls  the  joys  and  achieve- 
ments of  those  lives  while  still  within 
mortal  view,  and  treasures  up  and  mul- 
tiplies the  good  influences  they  exerted. 
Moreover,  such  a  religion  has  no  tend- 

36 


RELIGIOUS    CONSOLATION 

ency  to  diminish  the  force  in  this 
world,  or  any  other,  of  the  best  human 
imaginings  concerning  the  nature  of  the 
infinite  Spirit  immanent  in  the  universe. 
It  urges  its  disciples  to  believe  that  as 
the  best  and  happiest  man  is  he  who  best 
loves  and  serves,  so  the  soul  of  the  uni- 
verse finds  its  perfect  bliss  and  effi- 
ciency in  supreme  and  universal  love 
and  service.  It  sees  evidence  in  the 
moral  history  of  the  human  race  that  a 
loving  God  rules  the  universe.  Trust 
in  this  supreme  rule  is  genuine  consola- 
tion and  support  under  many  human 
trials  and  sufferings.  Nevertheless,  al- 
though brave  and  patient  endurance  of 
evils  is  always  admirable,  and  generally 
happier  than  timid  or  impatient  conduct 
under  suffering  or  wrong,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  endurance  or  constancy  is 
not  consolation,  and  that  there  are 
many  physical  and  mental  disabilities 
and  injuries  for  which  there  is  no  con- 

37 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

solation  in  a  literal  sense.  Human 
skill  may  mitigate  or  palliate  some  of 
them,  human  sympathy  and  kindness 
may  make  them  more  bearable,  but 
neither  religion  nor  philosophy  offers 
any  complete  consolation  for  them,  or 
ever  has. 


to 


' 


IN  thus  describing  the  consolations  for 
human  woes  and  evils  which  such  a  reli- 
gion can  offer,  its  chief  motives  have 
been  depicted.  They  are  just  those 
which  Jesus  said  summed  up  all  the 
commandments,  love  toward  God  and 
brotherliness  to  man.  It  will  teach  a 
universal  good-will,  under  the  influence 
of  which  men  will  do  their  duty,  and  at 
the  same  time,  promote  their  own  hap- 
piness. The  devotees  of  a  religion  of 
service  will  always  be  asking  what  they 
can  contribute  to  the  common  good  ;  but 
their  greatest  service  must  always  be  to 
increase  the  stock  of  good-will  among 
men.  One  of  the  worst  of  chronic  hu- 
man evils  is  working  for  daily  bread 
without  any  interest  in  the  work,  and 

39 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

with  ill-will  towards  the  institution  or 
person  that  provides  the  work.  The 
work  of  the  world  must  be  done;  and 
the  great  question  is,  shall  it  be  done 
happily  or  unhappily?  Much  of  it  is 
to-day  done  unhappily.  The  new  reli- 
gion will  contribute  powerfully  toward 
the  reduction  of  this  mass  of  unneces- 
sary misery,  and  will  do  so  chiefly  by 
promoting  good-will  among  men. 

A  paganized  Hebrew-Christianity 
has  unquestionably  made  much  of  per- 
sonal sacrifice  as  a  religious  duty.  The 
new  religion  will  greatly  qualify  the 
supposed  duty  of  sacrifice,  and  will  re- 
gard all  sacrifices  as  unnecessary  and 
injurious,  except  those  which  love  dic- 
tates and  justifies.  "  Greater  love  hath 
no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down 
his  life  for  his  friends."  Self-sacrifice 
is  not  a  good  or  a  merit  in  itself ;  it  must 
be  intelligent  and  loving  to  be  meritori- 
ous, and  the  object  in  view  must  be 

40 


"GOOD-WILL   TO    MEN " 

worth  its  price.  Giving  up  attractive 
pleasures  or  labors  in  favor  of  some 
higher  satisfaction,  or  some  engrossing 
work,  is  not  self-sacrifice.  It  is  a  re- 
nunciation of  inferior  or  irrelevant  ob- 
jects in  favor  of  one  superior  object;  it 
is  only  the  intelligent  inhibition  of 
whatever  distracts  from  the  main  pur- 
suit, or  the  worthiest  task.  Here, 
again,  the  new  religion  will  teach  that 
happiness  goes  with  dutifulness  even  in 
this  world. 


C6e  Uplifting  3L:otie  of  Ctutt) 

ALL  the  religions  have  been,  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  uplifting  and  in- 
spiring, in  the  sense  that  they  raised 
men's  thoughts  to  some  power  above 
them,  to  some  being  or  beings,  which 
had  more  power  and  more  duration 
than  the  worshippers  had.  When 
kings  or  emperors  were  deified,  they 
were  idealized,  and  so  lifted  men's 
thoughts  out  of  the  daily  round  of  their 
ordinary  lives.  As  the  objects  of  wor- 
ship became  nobler,  purer,  and  kinder 
with  the  progress  of  civilization,  the 
prevailing  religion  became  more  stimu- 
lating to  magnanimity  and  righteous- 
ness. Will  the  future  religion  be  as 
helpful  to  the  spirit  of  man?  Will  it 
touch  his  imagination  as  the  anthropo- 

40 


THE    UPLIFTING   LOVE    OF   TRUTH 

morphism  of  Judaism,  polytheism,  Is- 
lam, and  paganized  Christianity  have 
done?  Can  it  be  as  moving  to  the  hu- 
man soul  as  the  deified  powers  of  na- 
ture, the  various  gods  and  goddesses 
that  inhabited  sky,  ocean,  mountains, 
groves,  and  streams,  or  the  numerous 
deities  revered  in  the  various  Christian 
communions, — God  the  Father,  the 
Son  of  God,  the  Mother  of  God,  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  the  host  of  tutelary 
saints?  All  these  objects  of  worship 
have  greatly  moved  the  human  soul,  and 
have  inspired  men  to  thoughts  and 
deeds  of  beauty,  love,  and  duty.  Will 
the  new  religion  do  as  much?  It  is  rea- 
sonable to  expect  that  it  will.  The  sen- 
timents of  awe  and  reverence,  and  the 
love  of  beauty  and  goodness,  will  re- 
main, and  will  increase  in  strength  and 
influence.  All  the  natural  human  af- 
fections will  remain  in  full  force.  The 
new  religion  will  foster  powerfully  a 

45 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

virtue  which  is  comparatively  new  in 
the  world — the  love  of  truth  and  the 
passion  for  seeking  it,  and  the  truth  will 
progressively  make  men  free;  so  that 
the  coming  generations  will  be  freer, 
and  therefore  more  productive  and 
stronger  than  the  preceding.  The  new 
religionists  will  not  worship  their  an- 
cestors; but  they  will  have  a  stronger 
sense  of  the  descent  of  the  present  from 
the  past  than  men  have  ever  had  before, 
and  each  generation  will  feel  more 
strongly  than  ever  before  its  indebted- 
ness to  the  preceding. 

The  two  sentiments  which  most  in- 
spire men  to  good  deeds  are  love  and 
hope.  Religion  should  give  freer  and 
more  rational  play  to  these  two  senti- 
ments than  the  world  has  heretofore 
witnessed;  and  the  love  and  hope  will 
be  thoroughly  grounded  in  and  on  effi- 
cient, serviceable,  visible,  actual,  and 
concrete  deeds  and  conduct.  When  a 

44 


THE    UPLIFTING   LOVE    OF    TRUTH 

man  works  out  a  successful  treatment 
for  cerebro-spinal  meningitis — a  disease 
before  which  medicine  was  absolutely 
helpless  a  dozen  years  ago — by  apply- 
ing to  the  discovery  of  a  remedy  ideas 
and  processes  invented  or  developed  by 
other  men  studying  other  diseases,  he 
does  a  great  work  of  love,  prevents  for 
the  future  the  breaking  of  innumerable 
ties  of  love,  and  establishes  good 
grounds  for  hope  of  many  like  benefits 
for  human  generations  to  come.  The 
men  who  do  such  things  in  the  present 
world  are  ministers  of  the  religion  of 
the  future.  The  future  religion  will 
prove,  has  proved,  as  effective  as  any 
of  the  older  ones  in  inspiring  men  to 
love  and  serve  their  fellow-beings, — 
and  that  is  the  true  object  and  end  of 
all  philosophies  and  all  religions;  for 
that  is  the  way  to  make  men  better  and 
happier,  alike  the  servants  and  the 
served. 

45 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

The  future  religion  will  have  the  at- 
tribute of  universality  and  of  adapta- 
bility to  the  rapidly  increasing  stores  of 
knowledge  and  power  over  nature  ac- 
quired by  the  human  race.  As  the  reli- 
gion of  a  child  is  inevitably  very  differ- 
ent from  that  of  an  adult,  and  must 
grow  up  with  the  child,  so  the  religion 
of  a  race  whose  capacities  are  rapidly 
enlarging  must  be  capable  of  a  corre- 
sponding development.  The  religion  of 
any  single  individual  ought  to  grow  up 
with  him  all  the  way  from  infancy  to 
age ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  reli- 
gion of  a  race.  It  is  bad  for  any  peo- 
ple to  stand  still  in  their  governmental 
conceptions  and  practices,  or  in  the  or- 
ganization of  their  industries,  or  in  any 
of  their  arts  or  trades,  even  the  oldest; 
but  it  is  much  worse  for  a  people  to 
stand  still  in  their  religious  conceptions 
and  practices.  Now,  the  new  religion  af- 
fords an  indefinite  scope,  or  range,  for 

46 


THE  UPLIFTING  LOVE  OF  TRUTH 

progress  and  development.  It  rejects 
all  the  limitations  of  family,  tribal,  or 
national  religion.  It  is  not  bound  to 
any  dogma,  creed,  book,  or  institution. 
It  has  the  whole  world  for  the  field  of 
the  loving  labors  of  its  disciples;  and 
its  fundamental  precept  of  serviceable- 
ness  admits  an  infinite  variety  and 
range  in  both  time  and  space.  It  is 
very  simple,  and  therefore  possesses  an 
important  element  of  durability.  It  is 
the  complicated  things  that  get  out  of 
order.  Its  symbols  will  not  relate  to 
sacrifice  or  dogma ;  but  it  will  doubtless 
have  symbols,  which  will  represent  its 
love  of  liberty,  truth,  and  beauty.  It 
will  also  have  social  rites  and  reverent 
observances;  for  it  will  wish  to  com- 
memorate the  good  thoughts  and  deeds 
which  have  come  down  from  former 
generations.  It  will  have  its  saints; 
but  its  canonizations  will  be  based  on 
grounds  somewhat  new.  It  will  have 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    FUTURE 

its  heroes;  but  they  must  have  shown 
a  loving,  disinterested,  or  protective 
courage.  It  will  have  its  communions, 
with  the  Great  Spirit,  with  the  spirits 
of  the  departed,  and  with  living  fellow- 
men  of  like  minds.  Working  together 
will  be  one  of  its  fundamental  ideas, — 
of  men  with  God,  of  men  with  prophets, 
leaders,  and  teachers,  of  men  with  one 
another,  of  men's  intelligence  with  the 
forces  of  nature.  It  will  teach  only 
such  uses  of  authority  as  are  necessary 
to  secure  the  cooperation  of  several  or 
many  people  to  one  end;  and  the  disci- 
pline it  will  advocate  will  be  training  in 
the  development  of  cooperative  good- 
will. 


Cfjtfstian  TBrot&er&ooD 

WILL  such  a  religion  as  this  make 
progress  in  the  twentieth-century 
world?  You  have  heard  in  this  Sum- 
mer School  of  Theology  much  about  the 
conflict  between  materialism  and  reli- 
gious idealism,  the  revolt  against  long- 
accepted  dogmas,  the  frequent  occur- 
rence of  waves  of  reform,  sweeping 
through  and  sometimes  over  the 
churches,  the  effect  of  modern  philoso- 
phy, ethical  theories,  social  hopes,  and 
democratic  principles  on  the  established 
churches,  and  the  abandonment  of 
churches  altogether  by  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  population  in  countries 
mainly  Protestant.  You  know,  too, 
how  other  social  organizations  have,  irj 
some  considerable  measure,  taken  the 

49 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

place  of  churches.  Millions  of  Ameri- 
cans find  in  Masonic  organizations, 
lodges  of  Odd  Fellows,  benevolent  and 
fraternal  societies,  granges,  and  trades- 
unions,  at  once  their  practical  religion, 
and  the  satisfaction  of  their  social 
needs.  So  far  as  these  multifarious  or- 
ganizations carry  men  and  women  out 
of  their  individual  selves,  and  teach 
them  mutual  regard  and  social  and  in- 
dustrial cooperation,  they  approach  the 
field  and  functions  of  the  religion  of  the 
?uture.  The  Spiritualists,  Christian 
Scientists,  and  mental  healers  of  all 
sorts  manifest  a  good  deal  of  ability  to 
draw  people  away  from  the  traditional 
churches,  and  to  discredit  traditional 
dogmas  and  formal  creeds.  Neverthe- 
less, the  great  mass  of  the  people  re- 
main attached  to  the  traditional 
churches,  and  are  likely  to  remain  so, — 
partly  because  of  their  tender  associa- 
tions with  churches  in  the  grave  crises 

50 


CHRISTIAN    BROTHERHOOD 

of  life,  and  partly  because  their  actual 
mental  condition  still  permits  them  to 
accept  the  beliefs  they  have  inherited 
or  been  taught  while  young.  The  new 
religion  will  therefore  make  but  slow 
progress,  so  far  as  outward  organiza- 
tion goes.  It  will,  however,  progress- 
ively modify  the  creeds  and  religious 
practices  of  all  the  existing  churches, 
and  change  their  symbolism  and  their 
teachings  concerning  the  conduct  of 
life.  Since  its  chief  doctrine  is  the  doc- 
trine of  a  sublime  unity  of  substance, 
force,  and  spirit,  and  its  chief  precept 
is,  Be  serviceable,  it  will  exert  a  strong 
uniting  influence  among  men. 

Christian  unity  has  always  been 
longed  for  by  devout  believers,  but  has 
been  sought  in  impossible  ways.  Au- 
thoritative churches  have  tried  to  force 
everybody  within  their  range  to  hold 
the  same  opinions  and  unite  in  the  same 
observances,  but  they  have  won  only 

51 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

temporary  and  local  successes.  As 
freedom  has  increased  in  the  world,  it 
has  become  more  and  more  difficult  to 
enforce  even  outward  conformity;  and 
in  countries  where  church  and  state 
have  been  separated,  a  great  diversity 
of  religious  opinions  and  practices  has 
been  expressed  in  different  religious  or- 
ganizations, each  of  which  commands 
the  effective  devotion  of  a  fraction  of 
the  population.  Since  it  is  certain  that 
men  are  steadily  gaining  more  and 
more  freedom  in  thought,  speech,  and 
action,  civilized  society  might  as  well  as- 
sume that  it  will  be  quite  impossible  to 
unite  all  religiously-minded  people 
through  any  dogma,  creed,  ceremony, 
observance,  or  ritual.  All  these  are 
divisive,  not  uniting,  wherever  a  reason- 
able freedom  exists.  The  new  religion 
proposes  as  a  basis  of  unity,  first,  its 
doctrine  of  an  immanent  and  loving 
God,  and  secondly,  its  precept,  Be  serv- 


CHRISTIAN    BROTHERHOOD 

iceable  to  fellow-men.  Already  there 
are  many  signs  in  the  free  countries  of 
the  world  that  different  religious  de- 
nominations can  unite  in  good  work  to 
promote  human  welfare.  The  support 
of  hospitals,  dispensaries,  and  asylums 
by  persons  connected  with  all  sorts  of 
religious  denominations,  the  union  of 
all  denominations  in  carrying  on  Asso- 
ciated Charities  in  large  cities,  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations, and  the  numerous  efforts  to 
form  federations  of  kindred  churches 
for  practical  purposes,  all  testify  to  the 
feasibility  of  extensive  cooperation  in 
good  works.  Again,  the  new  religion 
cannot  create  any  caste,  ecclesiastical 
class,  or  exclusive  sect  founded  on  a 
rite.  On  these  grounds  it  is  not  unrea- 
sonable to  imagine  that  the  new  religion 
will  prove  a  unifying  influence,  and  a 
strong  reinforcement  of  democracy. 
Whether  it  will  prove  as  efficient  to 

53 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  FUTURE 

deter  men  from  doing  wrong  and  to  en- 
courage them  to  do  right  as  the  prevail- 
ing religions  have  been,  is  a  question 
which  only  experience  can  answer.  In 
;hese  two  respects  neither  the  threats 
tor  the  promises  of  the  older  religions 
have  been  remarkably  successful  in  soci- 
ety at  large.  The  fear  of  hell  has  not 
proved  effective  to  $eter  men  from 
wrongdoing,  and  heaven  has  never'yet 
been  described  in  terms  very  attractive 
to  the  average  man  or  woman.  Both 
are  indeed  unimaginable.  The  great 
geniuses,  like  Dante  and  Swedenborg, 
have  produced  only  fantastic  and  in- 
credible pictures  of  either  state.  The 
modern  man  would  hardly  feel  any  ap- 
preciable loss  of  motive-power  toward 
good  or  away  from  evil  if  heaven  were 
burnt  and  hell  quenched.  The  prevail- 
ing Christian  conceptions  of  heaven  and 
hell  have  hardly  any  more  influence 
with  educated  people  in  these  days  than 

54 


CHRISTIAN    BROTHERHOOD 

Olympus  and  Hades  have.  The  mod- 
ern mind  craves  an  immediate  motive  or 
leading,  good  for  to-day  on  this  earth. 
The  new  religion  builds  on  the  actual 
experience  of  men  and  women,  and  of 
human  society  as  a  whole.  The  motive 
powers  it  relies  on  have  been,  and  are, 
at  work  in  innumerable  human  lives; 
and  its  beatific  visions  and  its  hopes  are 
better  grounded  than  those  of  tradi- 
tional religion,  and  finer, — because  free 
from  all  selfishness,  and  from  the  im- 
agery of  governments,  courts,  social 
distinctions,  and  war. 

Finally,  this  twentieth-century  reli- 
gion is  not  only  to  be  in  harmony  with 
the  great  secular  movements  of  modern 
society — democracy,  individualism,  so- 
cial idealism,  the  zeal  for  education,  the 
spirit  of  research,  the  modern  tendency 
to  welcome  the  new,  the  fresh  powers 
of  preventive  medicine,  and  the  recent 
advances  in  business  and  industrial 

55 


CHRISTIAN    BROTHERHOOD 

ethics — but  also  in  essential  agreement 
with  the  direct,  personal  teachings  of 
Jesus,  as  they  are  reported  in  the  Gos- 
pels. The  revelation  he  gave  to  man- 
kind thus  becomes  more  wonderful  than 
ever. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


sasa 


Tel.  No.  642 


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